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Everything EP

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  • Well Rounded

Following a string of interesting genre detours, Manchester producer Rupert Taylor's house-centric new EP is his most consistently pleasurable release to date.

Pacing is a virtue. Whether in a two-hour mix or a singular seven-minute production, dance music's visceral properties are highly effective when spread evenly. Earlier in the last decade, minimal techno had a brief above-ground moment; the words "Villalobos" and "percolating" became synonymous, and slow-burning cuts that began with little more than clicks and whirrs often opened up into blooming, evocative moments that were well worth however long it took to get there. Two years into this new decade, there are still a few producers taking the slow, steady, sparse route-- the oft-dubbed "Villalobos heir" Nicolas Jaar being one of the most notable-- but immediacy is of-the-moment these days, with big, bold sounds pouring out of speakers both festival-tent large and club-night small. Even bass music artists, who at times catch an unfair rep for humorlessness, are starting to embrace the giddily dumb neon sounds out there (see: Scuba's excellent new LP, this year's boldly positive Personality).

Manchester producer Rupert Taylor walks a fine line between the "now" and the "then." Under the chromosome-happy moniker xxxy, Taylor's spent the last few years circling different sounds-- rubbery glitch, dubstep's broken rhythms, UK garage's skipping, echo-dusted gait, and so forth-- while making his work sound more emotive, melodic, and colorful. His 2010 EP for Fortified Audio, Every Step Forward, is an able display of his talents, as is that year's Radiohead rework "Straight to Video"-- but Taylor's "moment" truly arrived with the release of last year's "You Always Start It" b/w "Ordinary Things" single on fellow bass traveller Doc Daneeka's Ten Thousand Yen label. While the A-side was reliably solid, "Ordinary Things" was the release's winner, a seven-minute neck-whip of an UKG ride that sounds so explosively, sensually chaotic, it's easy to overlook how expertly put together the whole thing is.

Dilettantes and beatheads alike will often single out cuts they deem unworthy for being "one idea, and nothing else"-- is it a song, or just something to put in your next set? "Ordinary Things" lands squarely in the former camp, and so do the productions captured on Taylor's latest, Everything. Rupert Taylor's newest follows a string of releases from last year that, while evenly constructed, felt more functional in form: the party-hardy "Kerpow" b/w "Down With U", as well as the acid nostalgia of "You Gotta Do You", were interesting genre detours that just didn't quite stick as strong as you would've wanted them to. By comparsion, Everything is total Gorilla Glue, its earwormy hooks burrowing deep into your brain. The material may lack the general "surprise factor" that bowled over so many on "Ordinary Things", but overall it's his most consistently pleasurable release to date.

House music's the name of the game on Everything-- the warm, colorful 4/4 bleat of the opening title track spells that out, and Taylor offers his own tweaks on the genre throughout the rest of the EP's three productions. By and large, house music lends itself quite well to the art of the build, which means there's plenty of room here to place tons of little dots and squiggles throughout without letting things get too overwhelming. With its wild-eyed, unhinged sample of Anthony White's 1977 single "I Can't Turn You Loose" (skip to 1:25 or so), "Everything" risks ending up as the kind of aforementioned bleating, one-trick cut that folks scoff at-- then, the beat jacks up, cymbals go off like car alarms, and before the whole six-and-a-half minute trip is taken, the track's been emptied out, shook up, and spread out again, lushness still intact.

If "Everything" succeeds based on its organized chaos, the EP's centerpiece, "I Know This (Can't Be Love)", makes its bread on pure elegant pleasure, its skipping beat and wavy synths ebbing and flowing over a chipmunk'd snippet from cultishly beloved R&B singer Cassie's "Must Be Love". It's the type of loop-happy track that could go on for 10 more minutes without overstaying its welcome. "I Can't Stop" appears only on the vinyl edition of the EP, and it acts as as a reverse palate-cleanser, with fizzy synth bombs and a shouty vocal sample effervescing within the cut's vaguely funky-esque stumble.

It's easy to underrate Everything, and by extension, Taylor as an artist. He's not doing anything new. These tunes are very easy to like and even easier to take for granted because of that. So you could nitpick this stuff to death for sounding "safe" and, if not typical, then exactly what you'd expect it to sound like-- or, you can let go extra-musical concerns for a minute or two and just reap the benefits of Rupert Taylor's generously patient producing hand. No harm in enjoying stuff just because it's enjoyable.

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